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GO Transit is apologizing for a mess of service problems that have afflicted its trains over the past month. But while the agency is promising some relief is on the way, officials are also advising customers to brace for more disruptions.

Late last month, GO changed the schedules for its Lakeshore West and East lines in preparation for the next phase of construction at Union Station. Since then, many of GO’s 215,000 daily passengers have been complaining of delays, crowding and overheated cars.

“It’s just been ridiculous. Every day without fail there’s a delay,” said Joseph Trauzzi, who commutes from Burlington to his finance job in Liberty Village.

The tipping point for him came last Thursday morning, when he drove to Appleby GO station to catch an express train only to find it was delayed, which meant he was going to miss his transfer at Oakville.

So he got back in his car and drove to Oakville. Although he managed to get a spot on the train, he said it was already so “jam-packed” that when it stopped at subsequent stations there was no room for anyone else. To make matters worse, at Mimico someone on the overcrowded vehicle triggered the passenger assistance alarm, and the train had to wait, with doors open in the sweltering heat, until an ambulance arrived.

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“You’re expecting delays every now and then. Things are going to happen. But for the delays to be as consistent as they have been recently, it’s not appropriate,” said Trauzzi, who spends $350 a month to ride GO. “To pay that kind of money for a service, you expect it to be on time, most of the time.”

In a statement released Thursday, the chief operating officer for Metrolinx, which oversees GO Transit, acknowledged that service has not been up to snuff.

Greg Percy said he’s a regular Lakeshore West rider and has seen the problems firsthand. “I agree (the service) has not met our standard or the reasonable expectations of our customers,” he said, adding that everyone at Metrolinx is “committed to do everything we can to rebuild confidence in the GO service.”

GO offers credits to customers whose trains are delayed more than 15 minutes for reasons within the agency’s control. Metrolinx spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins said that there was an increase in refunds in the first week of the new schedule but the number has since returned to normal. Most of the delays are between five and 10 minutes, she said.

Aikins explained that the new schedules were designed to allow for as much service as possible into Union while construction is ongoing. There is less grace time between each trip than normal, however, and if one train is late it can have cascading effects on others.

But new schedules aren’t the only problem. Aikins said that that this summer’s scorching weather is also a factor. On exceptionally hot days Metrolinx issues “slow orders” on some lines because high temperatures can cause “sun kinks,” or warps in the tracks that can derail trains. Aikins said that, so far this summer, there have been an “unprecedented” six slow orders.

The heat has also worn out the air-conditioning units on some coaches, and half a dozen trains have been reduced from 12 to 10 cars while the units are being repaired. That’s a reduction of 300 seats on each train.

Aikins said the air conditioning units should all be fixed in about a week, which will alleviate crowding. She also said train delays have been declining each week since the new schedules came into effect and service should continue to improve as GO gets used to the new timetables. Transit safety officers are also being added to Union Station to help with platform crowding.

In the meantime, Aikins offered an apology to GO customers. “We have heard how unhappy they are, loud and clearly. And we are very, very sorry that they’ve been impacted as much as they have,” she said.

But there is more inconvenience coming for the 90 per cent of GO train customers who pass through Toronto’s main rail hub each day. Next month, GO will shut down two of its 13 platforms at Union Station so the train shed’s roof can be replaced. To accommodate the ongoing work, the unpopular new schedules will remain in place for about two years.

“This is the new normal right now,” said Aikins. But she stressed that while the construction is frustrating, it’s required for Metrolinx to implement its regional express rail initiative, which will offer all-day, two-way GO service throughout the GTA.

“This is going to be the absolutely necessary pain in order to get to the great stuff at the end, which is more service,” Aikins said.

Some angry GO customers say Metrolinx’s apologies aren’t worth much if it can’t resolve its service problems. Jim Brookes commutes four days a week from Port Credit to Toronto, and says the system is more dysfunctional than he’s ever seen it in more than a decade of taking GO.

“It hasn’t even been a full month yet since they’ve implemented this and it’s been a disaster,” Brookes said. “So if they think they’re going to carry this out for another 23 months, I honestly think the leadership at Metrolinx needs to be questioned about that.”

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